Thread: Seeking Organic Lawn Care

I hope this is the right place. I own a home in West Palm Beach, FL and have a fair sized lawn (approximately 5000 sq ft) that I seem to be slowly losing control of (dead patches and an abundance of weeds of a wide variety). My wife fervently insists that we not use chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc. both because of the negative environmental impact but also because of possible health concerns. I am seeking an organic lawn care company that services clients in the West Palm Beach area of Florida, not for complete lawn maintenance (I enjoy doing my own yard work), but just someone who can advise me and maybe get my lawn back to a state where I have a fighting chance. If anyone can make a suggestion I would be extremely grateful.

The most successful grasses on the continental US over the past several thousand years have all been done naturally, even organically... as long as you're not undercutting the natural processes of your plants, it shouldn't take a lot of effort to accomodate your wife's desire for a synthetic free lawn...
Pull the weeds and overseed the dead spots with compost... I'm in cool-season country so the details will have to be worked out by someone else in warm-season areas... But growing grass is more important than killing weeds, so focus on sensible cultural practices and don't undermine your living creatures' ability to live and thrive...

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Now that I know that clay's texture(platelets) has nothing to do with water infiltration, percolation, or drainage,,, I wonder what does...
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I hope this is the right place. I own a home in West Palm Beach, FL and have a fair sized lawn (approximately 5000 sq ft) that I seem to be slowly losing control of (dead patches and an abundance of weeds of a wide variety). My wife fervently insists that we not use chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc. both because of the negative environmental impact but also because of possible health concerns. I am seeking an organic lawn care company that services clients in the West Palm Beach area of Florida, not for complete lawn maintenance (I enjoy doing my own yard work), but just someone who can advise me and maybe get my lawn back to a state where I have a fighting chance. If anyone can make a suggestion I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you,
Erik

That's a tough one, finding a totally "organic lawn care company" is rare to begin with in FL. The bug and fungus capital of the world. :-) Finding one that would be willing to constantly give advise and just do a little here and there would be even more unlikely. If you should find an "organic lawn care company", you may want to consider hiring their services for a year or two until they get your lawn back under control. Pay attention to what they are doing before deciding if you want to tackle it on your own. It's to my knowledge using organic lawn care methods require much more applications and results appear much slower in most circumstances. That's only my opinion, Good Luck!

Thank you both for your replies. I have been attempting to allow the natural attributes of grass to win out by cutting the grass at a high setting, watering deeply and infrequently (though with all the rain we have been getting its almost a moot point), fertilizing and pulling weeds. Unfortunately the scope of the weeds makes pulling them a 24/7 task.

I do appreciate what you are saying though Sprinkler Buddy, I would be happy to hire a company for a year or so just to get my yard back under control. Guess I will just have to keep looking.

I hope this is the right place. I own a home in West Palm Beach, FL and have a fair sized lawn (approximately 5000 sq ft) that I seem to be slowly losing control of (dead patches and an abundance of weeds of a wide variety). My wife fervently insists that we not use chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc. both because of the negative environmental impact but also because of possible health concerns. I am seeking an organic lawn care company that services clients in the West Palm Beach area of Florida, not for complete lawn maintenance (I enjoy doing my own yard work), but just someone who can advise me and maybe get my lawn back to a state where I have a fighting chance. If anyone can make a suggestion I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you,
Erik[/QUOTE

Not to sound negative but you will be searching a long time for your wishful lawn. My advise is to go zeroscape rocks and native plants and not worry about green cause the only green you will end up with is a lot less green money and weeds.

When is a good time for you to seed? Is it possible for you to pull a weed and drop some seed to the effect of eventually reducing the weed population with a thicker stand of turf?? Otherwise, spot spray the weeds and overseed the entire lawn when the time is right...

__________________
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Now that I know that clay's texture(platelets) has nothing to do with water infiltration, percolation, or drainage,,, I wonder what does...
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